This paper analyses the issues of regulatory reform in the energy industry of post- Soviet countries. We identify the characteristics of the transformation that these countries go through: it is the introduction of a) a new legal culture and b) a capitalist rationality of production in societies...

The rapidly growing literature on the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth has not univocally identified the real causal relationship yet. We argue that bivariate models, which analyze the causality at the level of the total economy, are not appropriate - especially in...

CCS (carbon dioxide capture and storage) is an issue which has received increasing attention in the debate on climate change over the last several years because of its relative technical simplicity and very large potential in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The absence of secondary benefits...

When it comes to our sustainability problems, striving for greater resource efficiency seems like an obvious solution. For example, if you buy a new car that’s twice as efficient as your old one, it should cut your gasoline use in half. And if your new computer is four times more efficient...

As governments and corporations have intensified their efforts to locate, extract, and capitalise oil, gas, and various other biophysical materials, the world has simultaneously witnessed a proliferation of social resistance to these efforts. While taking many forms, such resistance, and...

Unless developing Asia decarbonizes its development, global warming is unlikely to stay below the internationally agreed limit of 2êC above preindustrial levels. Integrated assessment modeling offers insights into how a low carbon transition can be achieved. The Sixth Assessment Report of the...

According to mainstream thinking, efficiency is a potent tool for conservation — a way to live better while using fewer resources. Unfortunately, this simple narrative is contradicted by overwhelming evidence. Instead of spurring conservation, efficiency seems to stimulate the consumption of...

In this paper, the author examines the current structure of the tax system for hydrocarbon production in Trinidad and Tobago in light of global trends in hydrocarbon taxation. Some of the main features of the tax regime are compared and benchmarked against what the literature has defined as best...

Where should we look to understand the origin of inequality? I propose an unusual window of evidence—modern societies. I hypothesize that evidence for the origin of inequality is encoded in the institutional structure of industrial societies. To test this idea, I use a model to project modern...